Feds say they are dealing with ‘unprecedented event’

rescues, disastrous flooding and a massive cleanup are ongoing on in Houston.

Among those making the plea for a quick congressional appropriation is HUD Secretary Ben Carson, who told the Chronicle in an interview Wednesday that time is of the essence.

“Everybody, of course, has to get their two cents in,” he said, “but we hope they can get it in quickly because in the past there have been long delays because of politics.”

Cuts won’t happen?

The message was reinforced by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, who held a news conference with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, one of several Texas Republicans who has come under fire from lawmakers in the East for voting against a funding package for the 2012 Superstorm Sandy that he said was bloated.

Before Harvey hit, the Trump administration had proposed an $876 million cut to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account. Most observers believe that’s not going to happen. Jackson Lee assured storm victims that the response in Congress would be a “bipartisan effort.”

While no one knows what the final storm tab will be, additional disaster relief funds are likely to be part of any stopgap government funding measure Congress must pass by the end of September, the end of the federal budget year.

State and federal officials say that FEMA, which coordinates the government’s response, currently holds a balance of about $3.8 billion available for the Harvey response.

But that is unlikely to go deep into the recovery.

As the rain tapers off and the water begins to recede, officials say their immediate goal is to return life back to normal for as many people as possible.

“Emergency managers around the country realize that restoring routine is the No. 1 goal, and recovery as well,” said FEMA director Brock Long. “If we can get the roadways open and get the private industry back on to restore some of that routine, as well as the schools … that’s on the front of our minds, actually, on the recovery side, getting the lights back on, getting the sewer system working, bringing up the private industry — bringing up the private industry is the most important thing.”

200,000 register

Alex Amparo, FEMA recovery director, said that nearly 200,000 people had registered for financial assistance through Wednesday morning through the government web site disasterassistance.gov

FEMA already has provided over $35 million in financial assistance for relocation assistance, repairs, lost personal property and other needs.

“This is an unprecedented event. We’ve seen our call volume increase and skyrocket larger than ever before,” Amparo said.

While the cleanup and rebuilding get underway, FEMA officials said that as of Tuesday night they had moved more than 1,800 families out of shelters and into some 2,000 hotel and motel rooms in five different states. “That number will continue to grow,” Long said.

While a third of Harris County remains under water, state and federal officials said Wednesday that they still do not know the number of flooded homes.

So far, Harris County estimates more than $38.1 million in damages to public property, even before the floodwaters begin receding for substantive assessments to be completed in most areas. State emergency officials said they expect those damage costs will mushroom in coming weeks as final assessments are completed and as cleanup and recovery operations begin, including debris removal, repairs to infrastructure such as bridges, utilities and buildings.

FEMA officials reported that as of Wednesday more than 12,400 employees from more than 17 federal departments and agencies are working together in support of the ongoing response to damages resulting from Harvey and subsequent flooding across Texas and Louisiana. That includes more than 1,100 Urban Search and Rescue personnel who have conducted rescues for more than 2,500 survivors.

The Coast Guard also reported that by Wednesday more than 4,200 survivors and over 1,000 pets had been rescued in South Texas and Louisiana.

Abbott announced that the National Guard commitment to the Texas recovery will grow to nearly 24,000 troops in coming days — 14,000 from Texas, 10,000 from other states — in what officials confirm is the largest such deployment in state history for a hurricane disaster.

But while officials promised a robust government response in the recovery, they also said that the continued cooperation of citizen volunteers is critical to get back to a semblance or normality.

“The storm was bigger than the state,” said Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor. “It was bigger than the federal government. It was bigger than any single entity. But it was not bigger than all of us collectively.”